Notre Dame boys' basketball steps up defense in win over Lawrence

Isaiah Johnson poured in 26 in the win for Notre Dame. Martin Griff / The Times of Trenton

LAWRENCE — If the Notre Dame High School boys’ basketball team was looking to make a statement to the CVC and the state last night, it certainly succeeded.

The Irish took care of business in a big way against Lawrence on their home floor, cruising 89-48 in a game that really seemed over after the second quarter.

After a tough loss to Trenton Catholic Academy on Sunday night, the Irish came in with a renewed focus and a drive to force turnovers on defense.

“We finally got the concept of pressure defense,” Notre Dame head coach Bob Turco said. “It’s something we’ve been lacking the first two games. Even against Ewing when we won, we allowed the ball to swing across the court with ease, no denial of the wings. We were just content on contesting and controlling gaps. We spent a two-and-a-half hour practice last night after TCA (working on our defense).”

The biggest playmakers on the defensive end were senior guard Isaiah Johnson, who masterfully played the passing lanes, and senior forward Josh Williams and senior center Steve Harris, who played tight interior defense and controlled the boards.

“After the TCA game, we had to change everything around so we could really make our defense better and make our offense better,” Williams said. “So we went to man, to pressure the ball more and make it easy.”

According to Johnson, the biggest key for the Irish was to key in on their defense and let the points come from there.

“We came out and coach was like, from now on, turn our defense into our offense,” Johnson said. “He said come out, play man-to-man, really strong.”

Johnson certainly did a good job of turning defense into offense, snagging the ball from passing lanes and finishing on the break. Johnson finished with 26 points to lead the Irish in scoring, including a thunderous breakaway dunk in the second quarter.

While Johnson dominated the backcourt, Williams took over in the frontcourt, finishing with 12 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks.

“Josh is our 6’5” kid that plays like 6’8”,” Turco said. “He’s the guy that has the switch, and if he turns the switch on, we become a pretty good team. If he doesn’t, we’re just an average team.

“Josh is our wild card. When he wants to play, he can take this team to a whole other level.”

As big of a win as this was, the Irish can’t let it stay on their minds for too long.

“This is like Ewing, we had a big win,” Turco said. “But how’s it going to carry over?”
If his player’s comments are anything to go off of, Turco shouldn’t have anything to worry about going forward.

“We’re going to enjoy this for five minutes, maybe ten minutes, and that’s all,” Johnson said.

“We just have to look past it,” Williams said. “We got the win right now, but tonight we’ve got to look to the next game. We can’t stay on this one.”